Highly controversial in its day because of its blunt look at the sexual hypocrisy of Victorian society, Jude the Obscure scandalized Victorian critics, who condemned it as decadent, indecent, and degenerate. Between its frank portrayals of sexuality and its indictments of marriage, religion, and England's class system, the novel offended a broad spectrum of readers. Its controversial reception led the disillusioned author to renounce fiction altogether, turning his talents ever afterward to writing poetry.
Hailed by modern critics as a pioneering work of feminism and socialist thought, Hardy's tragic parable continues to resonate with readers.

Jude The Obscure was a huge commercial success when it was published in 1891. It is now considered a masterwork of tragic fiction and one of the most moving and memorable of Thomas Hardy’s novels.

THOMAS HARDY (1840-1928) was an English poet and novelist. Author of Far From the Madding Crowd, Jude the Obscure, The Return of the Native, Satires of Circumstance, The Trumpet-Major, and Poems of the Past and the Present, he is considered one of the world’s most influential literary figures.